05.16.05 - 11:56 p.m.

I was incapable of productive work this afternoon; the morning's field trip took it all out of me. well: the morning's field trip + the incredibly nice lunch + teasing _______ about his man-purse, that took it all out of me. It's particularly quiet here today. Public radio is off the air, so I'm listening to Die Zauberflaute - The Magic Flute - and staring not at the padded grey sky outside, but at the ugly walls in here, and my "Sogno d'un Valzer" print, which immediately draws the eye whenever I sit at my computer. For some reason, lately, my glasses irritate me except when they are close to my eyes - but then my lashes hit the lenses constantly, which makes it impossible to wear mascara.

I managed to finish two flowerbeds this weekend. The first was just grass, grass that was difficult to mow because of the ruts from the driveway, but grass. I broke the sod and threw away the grass - I know I should compost it, but composting is beyond me right now - turned the earth, then added hummus + manure and turned it again. The other bed was one of my foundation beds, which was completely overgrown with weeds despite the mulch and weed fabric someone laid down - oh, two years ago? Three? I took up all the weeds, all the overgrown mints, the grass, the chickweed, the wild strawberries and the dandelions, then took up the old landscape fabric and the old mulch, then started excavating belowdecks. I found - of course - strange layers of past cultivation in both beds: a layer of gravel in the foundation bed that someone had obviously used as mulch at some point in the past, nails and bits of shingles, or pieces of vinyl siding, an old bottlecap, completely full of mud, yet another layer of landscape fabric - well, the lower layer was black plastic, rather than the breathable landscape fabric popular now - larger stones, several plastic toys, a metal bug garden sculpture, and so on.

It was hard, physical work: all that digging and turning the soil, and worse Sunday, after the storms Saturday night, the furious, pounding rain, thunder always on the horizon. It was hard work, but it was delightfully numbing work: it was good work to do. The heat of the sun, the weird way my oversized garden gloves began to seem perfectly proportioned to the work at hand, the obvious, physical progress that I made. And then: at the end, after I had turned all the hummus and manure and replacement topsoil (for that lost among the roots of the old sod): I simply planted my plants. Well, I purchased them: daylilies (the flowers last only for one day), and veronica speedwell (purple candles of flowers erupting from a lush green bed) and yarrow and shasta daisies and english daises and pincushion blue scabiosa and dahlias and (the piece de resistance): an Endless Summer hydrangea. I had a dinner date, and did not get around to putting the mulch on the plants until today, which was fine since it was cool and sunny this evening. I extended the first bed, and put down more topsoil in the ruts from teh driveway, then covered them with mulch. I had planned to start working on the other foundation bed this evening, but first I decided to water my vegetable garden and my new flowers (I didn't Sunday since the ground was so wet from the hard rains).

The hose leaked so much that my pants, t-shirt, and shoes were completely soaked on the right - and this a brand new hose! and a brand new wand! It was infuriating: TWO hoses I've purcharsed, and TWO freaking spigot thingies. So I chucked it in and went to Lowe's to get a duct thingie for the dryer - (and while picking out a duct thingie, the Lowe's guy had to tell me that he was "impressed" that I'd done my homework. I suppose that's a version of "You throw pretty good for a girl!" - and although now I am mildly offended by the patronizing tone of that pat on the head, at the time I just beamed and (ugh) flirted about how I had installed the electrical cord on the back of the dryer already! OM! G! I am SO CLEVER FOR A GIRL. Except: that's entirely how I feel.) - I found (after much fruitless searching through the rows of plumbing fittings, the hose aisle, where I picked out some new brass couplings (rather inappropriately - this is just weird and irritating) they are male or female) and an on-off valve and a new trigger thingie that is GUARANTEED NOT TO LEAK.

Sh-yeah, right. We will see. We will see.